The Warriors reportedly aimed at Zion s teammates, and the Kumingga contract renewal farce is about to end

According to US sports media F/W contributor Chaitanya Dadwar, there are rumors that the Warriors are very interested in trading Trey Murphy, despite the injuries.

After the situation in Kumingga seems to be coming to an end, we finally received reports of potential activities from Warriors management. The only remaining focus of debate is that Kumingga’s representative hopes the Warriors will convert the team options from the previous offer to the player options, and he is ready to accept the agenda for Stephen Curry to win a fifth NBA championship.

Now, after this update to the farce story, the Warriors management is reportedly following Trey Murphy III, Zion Williamson's teammate with the Pelicans. According to NBA insider Jack Fisher, who works with Bleacher Report and Stein Line, the Warriors are “really” interested in trading Murphy, which strengthens their interest earlier this season. Despite multiple injuries, Murphy made a breakthrough season last year. Over two seasons, he has jumped from 14.8 points per game to nearly 50% of his average score per game.

As Zion has been an injury issue, the Pelicans began to see Murphy as a potential player to rely on. In October 2024, Murphy signed a four-year, $112 million contract with the Pelicans, which roughly corresponds to the latest offer provided by the Warriors to Cumingga. If Kuminga signs a contract extension, the Warriors may be preparing to offer Murphy the deal. But the Warriors have to offer more than just Kuminga to convince the Pelicans’ management. Kumingga averaged 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in the 2024-25 season; at the same time, Murphy averaged 21.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game during the same period. This shows that Murphy is bringing more things at this time than Kuminga. The Warriors currently have all first-round picks for the next four seasons. If negotiations begin, the Pelicans will demand at least two of the four draft picks in a potential trade. It can be said that three first-round picks are an ideal number for the Pelicans.

Warriors get: Murphy III

Pelicans get: Kuminga, 2026, 2028, 2032 First round picks from the Warriors

But similar to Kuminga, Murphy will face the same problem, that is, find playing time behind the Warriors' fixed starters Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green. The Warriors often played small balls last season because they had no traditional centers besides Kevin Looney, and Quinten Post was just a rookie. Maybe they could use Murphy as a six-foot-eight-inch small ball center.

While the Warriors are happy to achieve this, they are unlikely to do this with two or three extra first-round picks. Therefore, the Warriors face a difficult problem of whether to cash out these draft picks from Curry’s peak or to save them for potential reconstruction in the future. Or add other players to the chips that package Kumingga and retain important future draft assets, so that you can win in the present and not completely lose the future. What do you think?